WITH A LITTLE HELP: Area mascots—from Syracuse University, the Syracuse Crunch and the Syracuse Mets—showed up in force April 19 for a campus clean in advance of Earth Day. The group gathered in the Upstate Cancer Center before heading out to clean up campus. From left, are Otto the Orange, Crunchman, Scooch, Mr Butts and Hero from Upstate Medical.

IN MOURNING: Flags in front of Upstate University Hospital fly at half-staff earlier this week in honor of a Syracuse City Police officer and Onondaga County Sheriff Deputy who were killed the line of duty Sunday in Salina.

RAISING AWARENESS: Gina Richardson, whose son Ty’Sean was struck and killed by a car in December 2022, speaks at an Upstate Donate Life awareness event April 19 urging people to sign up to be organ donors. She said her son loved superheroes and became one as his organ and tissue donation benefitted the lives or more than a dozen people. The green superhero cape on the podium is now given to parents of pediatric donors in a nod to Ty’Sean’s family’s decision to donate.

STREET MEDICINE SUPPORT: Hope and Dignity, a fundraiser, for Housecalls for the Homeless and In My Father’s Kitchen, drew more than 300 to the Palace Theatre, raising more than $100,000 to support the Housecalls for the Homeless and In My Father’s Kitchen funds held at the Upstate Foundation. Attending were organizations’ co-founders, from left, John and Leigh-Ann Tumino of In My Father’s Kitchen, and Dr. David Lehmann and Mia Ruiz-Salvador of Housecalls for the Homeless. Housecalls for the Homeless, a partnership with Upstate is a street medicine program serving…

TOTAL ECLIPSE: Upstate students and staff gathered in Weiskotten Hall courtyard to view the solar eclipse, as day turned to night, illuminating the campus lights.

HONORING DONORS: Placing flags in the small garden outside of Upstate University Hospital to honor tissue, eye and organ donors from Upstate is part of the annual celebration April as Donate Life month.

DOCTOR’S DAY: Orthopedic surgeon Allyson Zakrzewski, MD, and radiation oncologist Seung Shin Hahn, MD, are among the Upstate physicians honored during National Doctors’ Day. The Upstate Foundation delivered notes and tributes written by patients to doctors during the special day, March 30. The Foundation recognizes the culture of gratitude that exists between doctors and their patients, and National Doctors’ Day provides the opportunity to make that gratitude explicit.

DANCING FOR DOLLARS FOR GOLISANO: Syracuse University students raised nearly $110,000 during their annual Ottothon dance marathon March 23 to support Upstate Golisano Children’s Hospital. It’s SU’s tenth year dancing for Golisano. The 12-hour dance, coordinated with the Upstate Foundation, has raised more than $100,000 annually since its inception.